#Singapore judge rules #gay sex ban must stay #LGBT

Singapore’s High Court has dismissed a case by gay partners Gary Lim and Kenneth Chee designed to scrap the law which bans gay male sex . LGBT people in Singapore have already said they will appeal the case to the Court of Appeal. Section 377A of the Singapore Penal Code, introduced when the island nation was under British rule, makes it a crime for men to engage in ‘gross indecency’ with each other, punishing them with up to two years jail. However, the law is rarely used. The legal claim to the High Court by Lim and Chee made the case that Section 377A was discriminatory and unconstitutional. But the Straits Times now reports that, in his 92-page judgment, Justice Quentin Loh said the decision on whether to keep the law was best left to Singapore’s Parliament, noting that they had voted to retain it in 2007. He said the ban on gay sex was a ‘particular long-held social n...